“We coulda been Rawkus” blasts Lyricist Lounge co-founder Danny Castro about the label that promised so much but delivered relatively little. Now Danny and partner Anthony Marshall-responsible for launching Mos Def’s career and countless others-have a master plan to bring back that old New York rap with the launch of a new label in 2003. But for now Danny and Ant are busy bringing the blazing Lyricist Lounge 2002 tour to a city near you. Sponsored by Crown Royal and featuring Scarface, Erick Sermon, and Killah Priest, this show’s not to be missed!
How’d the Lyricist Lounge come about?
DC: It was inspired by a friend of mine’s dad, a man named Charles Thompson. Me and Anthony were about 16, 17, and he was pretty much our first mentor. He used to drill us about becoming entrepreneurs and he was also a musician. He had this studio apartment in Lower East Side Manhattan for rehearsing and he wasn’t using it at the time so he let us use it and we did open mics once a week starting in late ’91. Like five to ten heads would come through and we used to have to drag ’em to come! They didn’t take it seriously. After a few weeks heads started getting into it and eventually we filled that spot up and in ’92 we got kicked out cause we were making too much noise. Then we moved to clubs.
Were both of you emcees?
DC: Back in the days we were both into hip-hop dancing, trying to get into videos.
Did you get into any?
AM: I was in King Sun’s video and in Little Shawn’s “Hickeys On Your Chest.”
DC: I was in one of Jay Z’s first videos and some corny no name videos. Dancing was still pretty big at that time and then dancing started dying out a little so many of the people that was dancing just evolved into rhyming. Those are some of the first people we used to invite to the open mics.
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I know battles broke out on occasion at the Lounge. Which one really stands out as the most intense?
AM: I have to go with the Supernatural versus Craig G battle in ’94. Supernatural was the hottest cat at the time and at the height of his career he ended up battling Craig G at our show. They both did their thing and at the end the crowd gave it up to Craig G. Supernatural, now I think he sees it different and sees what he gained out of it but at first I think it hit ’em personal, [especially] because Supernatural was down with KRS-ONE and Craig G was from the Juice Crew. It was like the MC Shan thing all over again. KRS did it out with Shan and it was all about the Bronx and years later Craig G brought it back home (Queens) for the Juice Crew. It was a classic moment. It was during the New Music Seminar and there were like two thousand people there. Big, Puff was there, Mobb Deep, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Das EFX. Half of them I just named was just chillin there taking in the show. Once you blow up and you’re gold and platinum or whatever you’re in a whole different realm of people in a whole different surrounding which makes you feel a certain way which makes you write a certain kind of music. Being in our element brings those type of cats back home.
How did the deal with Rawkus come about for Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1 and then Vol. 2?
DC: We were shopping for a deal to do the compilation. We submitted it to like every label and most labels didn’t get it, they didn’t think it would sell. This was like ’96 and one of our old partners, Perry, he was friends with John Forte who was A&R at Rawkus for a minute. I think John Forte is the one that introduced Kweli to Rawkus but I’m not sure… Rawkus was just getting into hip-hop. They had Company Flow, I think Shabaam Sahdeeq, and this group called Rose Family. We went over there, shopped the deal, and they were excited about the project. When we came into play we knew a lot of up and coming artists so they felt that it was a good opportunity for them also.
I would say that the Lyricist Lounge is the reason Mos Def is where he is today.
DC: Definitely. We brought Mos Def to Rawkus. The way we see it we coulda been Rawkus, ya know? If we had the investments that they had, if we had News Corp. money we definitely woulda been out there. That’s why we have a label planned for next year, Lyricist Lounge Entertainment.
What else is in the immediate future?
AM: In January we’re starting up a monthly club tour focused on a college market in smaller venues. Right now the concert business is really hurting so we’re trying to create something that’s a little bit more reasonable. We have a few DVD projects coming out, one called Lyricist Lounge: The Best Of and it’s pretty much the best of all the footage that we have over the last eleven years or so. That’s coming out on Image Entertainment and Lyricist Lounge Entertainment. As far as the whole television side we’re working on bringing the television show back.
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You guys were killing me with those skits. I thought the original show should have focused more on showcasing emcees.
AM: Definitely
DC: We agree. That’s why when we come back with the show you’re gonna see more lyrical and more straight hip-hop oriented flavor in the show.
